The field of the invention generally relates to electrical jacks, and more particularly to jack modules each having a lamp assembly.
There is widespread usage of electrical jacks that have switches activated by inserting plugs through jack sleeves in the face plate of each jack. For example, one type of jack which is commonly referred to as a tri-jack has a vertically elongated face plate with three vertically aligned jack sleeves. Commonly, the top jack sleeve is used for monitoring the jack circuit, while the bottom two jack sleeves are used for interconnecting circuits such as between different tri-jacks using a patch cord with plugs on the ends. The circuits are typically digital or voice frequency and are used in such applications as, for example, telephone central offices, testing and patch panels, computer and data processing equipment, multiplex gear, and commercial and industrial patching and control applications.
In the typical configuration, a plurality of jacks are aligned side-by-side and encased in a housing thereby defining a jackfield. In many installations, a plurality of jackfield housings are mounted in racks. Generally, input and output circuits are connected to the back of each jack, and the front is covered by a panel that has apertures through which the jack sleeves extend so that patch cords may be inserted for monitoring, testing, or interconnecting circuits between different jacks. One such jackfield is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14,909, filed Feb. 13, 1987. Each jack module of the jackfield described therein has an associated lamp which protrudes through the front panel and is used to identify a jack module that is being monitored. More specifically, when a plug is inserted into the monitor jack sleeve, the lamp for that jack module is lit so the technician can readily tell which jack module is being monitored. Each jack module has a printed circuit board onto which forwardly extending parallel conductor strips are soldered. A lamp jack housing comprising two molded dielectric members are snapped together from the top and bottom encasing the conductor strips. Then, the lamp is inserted into a front bore in the lamp jack housing making electrical contact with the conductor strips. Each lamp housing has a pair of spaced posts which extended forwardly therefrom. These posts insert into corresponding slots in the rear of a lamp panel that covers all of the jack module lamps, and they are used to align the lamp housings.
The above-described jackfield has some drawbacks. First, if the lamp panel is removed such that the posts are not inserted into the rear slots, the lamp housings are not rigidly held in place, and are free to be moved laterally. Also, the tri-jacks are not rigidly connected to the lamp housings, so they can be moved or wiggled laterally when the front panel is removed such that their jack sleeves are not affixed by the apertures therein. In other words, there is nothing to laterally position the lamp housings nor the tri-jacks when the front panels were removed. Another drawback of the jackfield is that considerable time is required to align and connect the various lamp parts of the jackfield. More specifically, considerable assembly time is required to assemble the lamp housings and to align the lamp housings so that their respective posts insert in the slots in the rear of the lamp panel.